I was in that 'batch' and posted how fab it felt to be home but now 15 mths on we're heading back! We love the UK, we love aus, in fact we have no idea why we're going back, we just are! Don't be harsh on the UK, its a great place!

Couldn't agree with you more, and I can totally sympathise from where you are coming from too. I love Australia, love the UK too - my daughter is still out there so the pull back is strong isnt it!

We arrived back just before Christmas so its early days but I am so enjoying this weather and no, I am not bonkers!

Good luck on your return!

PLANTS

I'm still here, lurking

We have been back in the UK 3 years in March, and I was a member of this forum before we went to Oz, whilst we there and now we are back, these days though I don't post as much because as others have said I have told my story so many times that I don't want to go on and on about it. All I can say is life has never been better, we still have no regrets about going to Oz in the first place and we certainly don't have any about returning to the UK.

I come on here to see how people are doing and because I am a people watcher and love to hear peoples stories good and bad and sometimes I can give a little advice.

Nice to see some of the old names still visit and welcome to the new ones


Susan

And me too.......I'm always "lurking" now......I'm sick of sounding like a stuck record and reciting my "homesick in Oz" drama on here!!!

I'm in rainy, cold, miserable, over-crowded, dreary England at the moment and enjoying every minute of it!

I have to return to my faraway, isolated tower in Oz next week to serve some more time as my punishment. But for the time being I have reminded myself why I'd rather live in this country (England)....crime, immigrants and whatever else it's supposed to have wrong with it. It has got plenty of interesting stuff going for it, ok, weather isn't one of them, but there are more important things in life!! I have just spent 6 days in the south of France, courtesey of Ryanair who were offering FREE flights, gazing out over snow-capped Pyrenees mountains, and gorging on fine wine and cheese - well you can't do that from Oz very easily can you???

Anyway, lots of us do have plans to return at some point - hopefully next year, and I'll defo be back to post up our experiences! Couldn't live in Oz forever!

The best thing about being back in the UK is being able to get away from it easily?

envy envy..!!!

I remember a couple of years back one guy on here who gave the returnees a bit of stick and his posts implied we were whinging failures. This, of course, while he sat in the comfort of his UK home. When he moved to Oz, his wife hated it and they came home after a matter of weeks. Never heard from them on the forum again.

I like Kiama too...but normal day to day life never lets me get there !

And if you are talking about a M&S prawn sarnie I am drooling and crying at the same time.

The batch who came back was around a year or so after the time I arrived......I wanted so much to be part of that pack......four years on I am still here, I have regrets but manage a lot of the time perfectly fine and believe I would have had some of the same issues wherever I was. I can honestly say part of the reason I did not pack up initially was because hubby would have been heartsick (he loved it) now we are really successful but feel things have moved on too much to make another change at this point for our children.

We are very lucky and travel back at least once a year and the children get extra trips and family visit here....but this might be part of the reason I haven't got over my homesickness.

I have a dream........kids finish school and we get to go and work in Europe for a couple (until I change my mind again) of years.....and then....retire all over the world! Like they say in other parts of this forum......I won't know until I try it...I salute all of you who have moved back or back again....You are very brave.

Cheers

Hi Sandra

You are an early bird..!!...what time is it? 2.44am??

Isn't it just great at Kiama....I said to hubby if we could afford a place there then I wouldn't have come back..!!...well maybe....!!

No sorry wasn't an M & S sarnie..it was a homemade Pants one.....all with extra light mayo..!! wahhh heyyyyyyy I know how to live eh..!!!

I think good for you staying...I think had my hubby been really against coming back then maybe we would have stayed longer...who knows...!!Still you are there and have done so well, good for you.

Anyway I am about to trawl through a floor full of toys and take Miss Pants playmate home so she can wreck her own home..!!

Good to see you still posting..take care
P x

Hi, I just found this forum and it's interesting to read about another people's experiences. I came out to Sydney in 91 and have been going back on visits to the UK every 2 years. I came out with my young wife and we sat about enjoying Australia. Over the last 14 years I've packed a lot in and because I was so busy I lost myself in the pace not realising what price I was paying. Then 12 months ago my life came to a halt which gave me time to reflect. I never considered going home to he UK to live yet on my recent visit I realised how much the country has changed in culture and even weather. I'm the eldest of 5 children and we are a close family. What got me thinking was what's important in life, I've lived the high life and enjoyed it yet somehow being around family gives one a sense of belonging that can't be got from anywhere else. So for me the draw card is not the UK but more about rebonding and being close to my family. I have found that Sydney is a place without a soul, a city of young and upwardly mobile people all trying to make it before the clock tick beyond 35. Don't get me wrong I'm in the crowd but I'm tired of the pretenders and the want to bees. I used to believe that Sydney was a true melting pot of races yet I now realise that this only on the surface and that other countries have taken the lead. I suppose it’s not really surprising given the history of the country and its immigration polices since the 60’s. I actually found the UK more tolerate on my last trip. I grew up in the UK in the 60’s and then it was a little like Australia is now perhaps a little more extreme. Sydney is also obsessed with greed. I’m not saying the UK is perfect far from it, it’s just different and after all your home is where your heart is.

I would welcome your thoughts.

Funnily enough, I'm off there today to do some more house-hunting. It *is* pricier than any of the surrounding areas but it has a real buzz to it that I like. Given the fact that we need a bit more space we'll probably end up buying in Gerringong or Berry, but if the right house comes up, we'd certainly snap it up.

Aye ... the pull of the family can be a strong one - hope it fills the gap in your life you're missing. London really is no different regarding 'melting pots' however. The city's kept running by asians, caribeans, africans, eastern europeans and (let's face it) women, who do the vast majority of the 'menial' jobs while the (predominantly) white and (predominantly) male population get the plum jobs. Having had several of those plum jobs and having spent a good few years living in London, it made me up-sticks and move to the country. London, and indeed all of the larger cities, are usually full of young thrusting types trying to 'make it' in their chosen profession - greed rules whether it's London, Tokyo, New York or Sydney. Racist Britain is never that far beneath the surface, inter-racial tensions can always bubble up under the right circumstances and many white English people will express racist opinions in the comfort of their own homes to their peers (my father-in-law being a great example of a Daily Mail reading racist). So anyway - if those things bother you in Sydney - they'll still bother you in London - my advice is to make for the country where the main flashpoints are the size of your pretend 4WD, your proximity to the local pub and your views on fox-hunting

Thanks for your input I'm intending to live in Winchester for precisely the reasons above.

Winchester is lovely, you will never look back.